#kookm

What Do We Mean When We Ask This Question?

This question is not just a stray observation. It comes with a lot of unspoken meaning, and it can vary depending on who is asking and why (which is information we don’t always have with anonymous contributors).

I get two main readings off of these questions:

Jikookers who are nervous about whatever interaction they’ve witnessed, because they are afraid it invalidates their ship.

People who want to disprove that Jikook could be real.

So, what are we actually asking here?

Though not always spoken, the implication is that this means something about Jikook. JK seemingly showing more affection to Jin than Jimin, for example, indicates something negative about Jikook’s potential relationship.

It could be:

They’re not as close as we thought.

They couldn’t possibly be dating because JK wouldn’t do that if they were.

They broke up!

JK clearly doesn’t even like Jimin that much (and my God, does that myth persist in this fandom despite all evidence to the contrary).

I’m also not convinced it’s actually about frequency, though that’s usually a part of the ask. I think it’s more that people have specific expectations about how Jimin and Jungkook (and Tae depending on the context) should behave, and if they don’t live up to that, they’re not real.

For some people, any contact with another member is too much contact.

Does JK show More Skinship with Other Members?

Okay, all that's fine -- but does he?

Here’s the surprising answer: I don’t actually know.

And, to be honest, you probably don’t either.

Why is that? Well, because there is almost ten years’ worth of BTS content. Most fans have probably not seen all of it.

So, when we’re talking about what JK does the most, it’s hard to say for sure without the full context. And it’s important to remember that their filmed lives are only a small portion of their actual lives. We’re already drawing conclusions based on a half-painted picture, and the picture can be more and more unfinished depending on how much and what type of content we’ve consumed.

That doesn’t mean we can’t watch content and get a general feel for the members, their relationships, etc. – of course we can. But the question is often specifically about the frequency, which is evidence-based – and we don’t have the full evidence.

Since we don’t have that, the truth is often left up to perception.

And perception is affected by a lot of things.

How Perception Shapes Our Answer

Have you noticed how some Jikook and TKK shippers tend to hyperfocus on the interactions of the Maknae line?

Often, Vminkook’s relationships are compared and their behavior scrutinized, usually to decide which ship is “more real.” But if any of the Maknae line were to engage in the same behavior with another member, that goes unnoticed or ignored. (I’m looking at you, TaeJin.)

This is the bias that develops when you’re only paying attention to one ship, and/or one specific ship conflict. It looks a little silly when we zoom out and realize that there are seven people who all have relationships with each other, and that the group dynamics affect how they relate.

Every ship tends to value its members’ interactions, Jikookers included. But our ships can also make us see content differently – more meaningfully or more suspiciously, depending on what we’re watching.

Does It Really Matter?

The most important question! And, perhaps predictably, my answer is a resounding no.

Mostly when I see these asks, my thought is, “Why?” I don’t feel the need to prove that JK touches Jimin more through normal skinship on camera.

We know BTS to be an incredibly close and tight-knit group. Their boundaries are very different than those between most friends and sometimes even family – particularly for Western audiences. They touch, a lot. And considering how stressful and isolating their lives must be, this is very healthy for them and I’m so glad they do it.

It’s already so hard to delineate meaning from how they touch, which is why most of the Jikook accounts I follow don’t use that as a measurement . It’s also why we don’t have to edit out or pretend certain moments of skinship with others don’t exist; because we don’t heavily rely on those things to confirm or deny our ship.

And that’s because there’s so much more going on with Jikook than skinship.

Their awareness of each other, the way they speak to each other, the way they hang out outside of work or group situations and then tell us about it, the car sharing, the purposeful spilling of small personal details like “Jungkook’s ears turn red when he’s being sincere” or “Jimin’s breath stinks in the morning”….

You start to get a much larger picture, and it’s one that isn’t so easily shaken by skinship or other relationship dynamics.

These actions sometimes get overlooked because they’re smaller and less overt. They’re also less visible for people who are looking for a more fictional expression of love and romance. But they're there, and they're very telling.